Ralph Abernathy

Ralph Abernathy (11 March 1926-17 April 1990) was President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from 1968 to 1977, succeeding Martin Luther King, Jr. and preceding Joseph Lowery.

Biography
Ralph Abernathy was born in Linden, Alabama on 11 March 1926, the son of the first African-American to vote in Marengo County. Abernathy served as a platoon sergeant in a segregated US Army unit during World War II before being sent home after suffering from rheumatic fever, and he became an ordained Baptist minister in 1948. In 1951, he became Dean of Men at Alabama State University, and he became a pastor soon after. In 1954, Abernathy mentored Martin Luther King, Jr., and the two became friends and colleagues in the Civil Rights movement. Abernathy helped with founding the SCLC, becoming partners with King during the integration efforts in the south. Abernathy took over the SCLC after King's assassination in 1968, and he led the failed Poor People's Campaign and also protested against the US government's allocation of funds to space exploration while many Americans remained poor. In 1977, he was defeated in a run for the US House of Representatives, and he supported Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party from 1980 to 1984, when he returned to supporting the Democratic Party due to Reagan's failure to further the civil rights cause. Abernathy died of blood clots in 1990 at the age of 64.